Chili

I think chili is a great way to use leftovers so that they are actually delicious. Yesterday I made what was perhaps my finest chili ever, and used up all kinds of leftovers in the process. Here are the leftovers (from the freezer) that I used:
-corn
-ground turkey
-ground beef
-marbled steak
-tomato paste
-tomato sauce

Frugal Food endeavors

Last year I started off doing great with the $50/week for food, but then I got quite, how shall we say, flexible, as to what constituted a week. So this year I am trying something new. I am taking out a whole months worth of cash for food ($200) and for non-food items (diapers, shampoo, etc.) ($50) on the first of each month. Then when it is out, I won't spend anything else on food until the next month.

It worked pretty well for January. That is until Ryan and I went to Costco on Sunday with only $11 cash for the rest of the months groceries. I figured this would be just enough for the basics (milk, bananas and bread) and then we wouldn't be tempted to get any extras. I was right, it was enough for the basics, but Ryan talked me into getting one the foods they were sampling, and since we were going to have to write a check anyway...

Ikea

We went to Ikea over the weekend - which is always a crazy idea - that place is a zoo. But we braved it and bought an entertainment center with glass doors that lock so that lil' Miss Audrey can't open the DVD player at will. So we now have our coffee table back and I am very pleased to have a place to rest my dogs again. :)

Yogurt part deux

I love my yogurt maker. My first batch didn't turn out at all - I tried not heating the milk first (the manual says that should work as long as you are using pasteurized milk). The second batch was delicious, but a little thinner than the store bought kinds we are used to. The third batch I added a bit of powdered milk to thicken it up and it turned out perfect. It is so creamy and smooth. I just add a little brown sugar and it is like I am having a brown cow maple yogurt - yum.

I am actually surprised by how easy it is to make. Seriously, you heat the milk to 180, let it cool to 115, add the starter (other yogurt) and any other fixings (powdered milk, fruit, whatever), pour it into the cute little jars and leave it alone for six hours. The hardest part is not disturbing it for six hours. This is a new staple for us - I feel so frugal just thinking about it.

Yogurt

I have wanted a yogurt maker for a long time. I really love yogurt, but I don't really like how sweet or how tart most brands are. The one exception is Brown Cow yogurt. There is nothing better than a little container of Brown Cow Maple whole milk yogurt - seriously a little slice of heaven. But since Brown Cow is expensive and hard to find it is a rare indulgence. I knew there had to be a better way.

As a family (of 3) we spend around $10/week on yogurt (Audrey's Yobaby is $3 for 6, Ryan's Yoplait is $4 for 8 and my Danactive is $2 for 4) and since I try to spend only $50/week total on groceries, this is a significant chunk of our grocery bill. I am so excited to save so much money. The major expense for yogurt is the milk. I figure it takes just under 1/2 gallon to make a batch of 7 6 oz containers and I will probably need to make yogurt twice a week. So I am basically adding one gallon of milk to our grocery budget - which is about $2.50 at Costco. I am feeling so frugal just thinking about it!!

After some research, I decided to order a yogurt maker with my Christmas money. My mom suggested getting one that uses glass jars and I took her advice. I just got the package today and I can hardly wait to make it tomorrow.

VA Holidays in review

It seems that it has been a crazy few weeks since I last updated my blog. We had Christmas first in VA - it was lovely. Audrey is at a really fun age for Christmas. Here is a list of the fun things we did:
1. Went to the National Yule Log/Christmas Tree/Menorrah display in front of the White house. After looking at all this stuff, we had a mini car picnic with hot cocoa, cookies, veggies, and fruit. Then we all headed to the Temple to see the lights. Audrey was out like a light at this point, so we just drove through this year.
2. Stayed over Christmas eve at the in-laws. We had our big dinner and program after visiting the old folks home and passing out candy, while my FIL played the piano (which he does at this home every other Sunday evening and they absolutely love him). Then we watched Muppets Christmas Carol (which is the best rendition around).
3. Opened presents Christmas morning with the family. It was fun to watch Audrey's reactions to everything.
4. Ate Christmas brunch at Westfields Marriot. This is one of my favorite traditions that the in-laws have introduced me to. It is always delicious.
5. Christmas evening when we got to our own home, we opened presents that had been sent to us and that we had for each other. I think we should do this the following day next year because we were all pretty tired at that point.
6. We had a girls night out activity (a broadway play at the Kennedy center) and a boys night out activity (hockey game tickets) a few days later.

Fried Potatoes

Smell is a powerful memory stimulator. This morning I was making fried potatoes (to eat with our eggs) and the smell of the potatoes frying reminded me of my freshman year and particularly of my friend, Mary Merna. She and I would fry potatoes all the time - good food, good times.

Serious Business

Ryan and I decorated our tree again this year, sans Audrey. It is one of my favorite things to do with Ryan because he gets so crazy about it. He has a certain way that trees must be decorated and any deviation from said way, is unthinkable. So of course, I enjoy putting the "balls" (which he says use of the word "balls" instead of "ornaments" should automatically disqualify me from being able to put them up this year) in the wrong spots (big on top, small on the bottom, same colors close together, etc.) just to watch him go crazy about it when he finds them misplaced.

Usually, I move a ball or two into the wrong spot several times throughout the season just to watch Ryan notice them and call out "Oh No! This is all wrong! Amber, did you move this ornament here? It's a good thing I saw this to fix it." or something along those lines. Let the merriment begin.

Homemade

There is something special about homemade things. My sister William made me a couple of coffee mugs that I love and each morning I think about how her perfectly polished little hands formed the handle to be so comfy. We also have a couple of beautiful afgans on our couches from my grandmas. Other than those few exceptions, I think our house is store bought. This is unfortunate, because homemade things have a way of bringing the people you love into your home.

When I was a child, my mom used to ask us to make her something for Christmas, Bday, Mother's Day, etc. I always thought she was a little on the crazy side - nobody wants homemade presents, they are just plain embarrassing. Now I firmly agree with my mom. So, this year, I decided to try to make a gift or two for Christmas. I am not going to say who the "lucky" recipients are (other than Audrey, because I think they read this blog) but it has been (still is) a lot of fun to make their presents. I also want Audrey to know how great homemade presents are, so I am making a scarf for her.

Long story short, if you get a slightly tacky cross-stitch from me in the mail, hang it with pride and please know it was made with love.

Holiday Decorating

I enjoy decorating for the holidays, but only to a certain point. I like a few cute chachkies that are holiday appropriate, but too many feels cluttered. So this year I was surprised to realize that, aside from the tree, my entire holiday decorating took only 30 minutes to complete. I am listing them for my own personal benefit to know what to do next year without having to spend an hour rifling through the boxes to make sure I didn't miss anything (kind of a checklist for the future).

Things I did this year:
-put up our 2 advent calendars (felt trees with mini ornaments) one in the entry and one above the fireplace in the library
-three stockings on the fireplace mantel
-the "Ho Ho Ho" candles that William gave me last year on the right side of the fireplace
-the nutcrackers and the nutcracker book on the left side of the mantel
-the candy dish on the ledge in the kitchen
-the evergreen candle in front of the silver plate in the library
-evergreen garland around the stair rails with a red bow on the end of the banisters
-snowflake candle in entry bathroom with snowflake hand-towels
-got out the Christmas mugs in the cupboard - for hot cocoa
-the fudge container on the book shelf
-wreath on the front door

Things I would like to eventually add to my decorating list:
-Nice wreath over fireplace (I almost bought an actual pine wreath at costco yesterday - but my frugal sensibilities kept me from it)
-Replace 2 advent calendars with one that we actually really love
-Holiday bedding for my bedroom - flannel holiday sheets (or just a solid red or green) and a holiday quilt and pillow shams
-Holiday rug for the entry
-Wreaths for back doors

Sugar-Free Update

I did really well for the first few days (M,T,W) - and I felt really great. Then Thanksgiving came and I had one piece of Pumpkin Pie with whip cream - not too bad. But i repeated that the next day and the next and followed that with some homemade goodies that my sister G and I made while she was here - fudge and sugar cookies. So I fell off the sugar-free wagon and by the end of my days I was feeling lousy again. So I am recommitting.

The key to my success (on the 3 days I was successful) was to eat small healthy snacks often. I never went without food for longer than 3 hours. I ate cottage cheese, string cheese, yogurt, grapefruit, oatmeal with flax, bananas, apples, green beans, frozen veggies, etc. If I have those things on hand and in mind, I can avoid my (disarmingly strong) urge to eat a sweet treat.

JAS

I am so excited. I am going to attend my first Jane Austen Society meeting next Saturday in DC. I haven't officially joined the Society yet, as I figured I should attend a meeting first and see if it is really my cup of tea or not. It is a luncheon at the Embassy Suites and the speaker's topic is titled: "A Rushing Stream: Reading Beyond Austen". To be honest, I am a little skeptical about how much I will like this topic. I am also a little nervous that I will be the most under-read of all the Janeites there. I mean I have read all of her works at one point, and some of them many times over, but to be honest, I haven't read any Austen since the summer. What if everyone else reads her much more frequently and think I am a bit of poser.

Sugar-Free

Sunday afternoon I had an epiphany. I realized I am addicted to sugar. I use it as a substitute for anything and everything (sleep, medicine, entertainment, etc.). This is not a recent phenomenon for me, back in college my secret cure-all to any ailment was brownies. Subconsciously, I still believe there is nothing a delicious brownie or k.a. cookie can't cure.

Back to Sunday - that afternoon and evening I had a stomach ache. Not a doubled-over-throwing -up-kind-of-stomach-ache, just a dull,-everything-is-not-right-sort-of-stomach-ache. In fact, I realized I have those quite often, so I decided to try an experiment. I have cut out all superfluous sugar. No sugar in my coffee or oatmeal, etc. I am not going extreme, I am planning on having a slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving and I am still eating things that traditionally hide a little sugar - like bread and spaghetti sauce. I just want to see if I really need all the sugar I eat, or if I just eat it because my blood sugar is spiking up and down. I am also hoping my stomach just overall feels better at the end of the experiment.

The good news is I have been eating less sugar the last two days and while I am dead-dog-tired right now, I haven't felt too bad otherwise.

Book Club

Ryan and I used to have a book club. It was co-ed and made up mainly of co-workers and former roommates. We got together roughly once a month and we alternated between fiction and non-fiction. We rotated who picked the book and hosted the meeting/led the discussion. I actually really miss those book club days.

These are the books we read (in no particular order): Sea Biscuit, Life of Pi, Atonement, The Tipping Point, His Excellency, Into the Wild, Middlesex, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Treasure Trove, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Looking for Class and Bluebeard.

Clearly, we read a wide variety of books.

Janeite

I consider myself a Janeite (lover of all things Jane Austen). My first introduction to Jane Austen was in the movie Clueless (which is an adaptation of Emma). While I loved Clueless, my real conversion did not happen until after I graduated college. (I read Pride and Prejudice one summer during college. I really liked it, but didn't bother to rent any movie versions or read any of her other works. )

Shortly after I got married I was looking for good reading material. We took the metro to and from work everyday and because we lived so close to the metro, we took it quite often for other things as well - so I had lots of good time to read. One auspicious morning I grabbed my old paperback version of P&P to reread on the train. This time I fell in love!! I was actually irritated when the metro ride went off without a hitch because I got less reading time. When I finished it, I read Emma. Within a few months, I read them all, including her unfinished ones. I watched all the movie versions of her books that I could find and I now own almost all of them. (Of course, P&P with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy is standard by which all others are measured.)

So now, I am setting my sites a little higher - I really want to go to the Jane Austen Festival in Bath (England). I would love to go with a group of friends who love Jane Austen too. So let me know if you are game.

In the meantime, here is a fun little puzzle for fellow Janeites to enjoy:
http://www.excessivelydiverted.com/Diversions.htm

Healthy Breakfast

As I posted earlier, I have become a real fan of Irish oats. Well, I just found a way to make them even healthier and add a bit of a nutty flavor to them - flax seed meal. I just added a couple of tablespoons of flax seed meal to my Irish oats this morning with my brown sugar and it was delicious. Plus, because flax seed is so healthy (fiber, omegas and lignans) it felt good to eat and helped me stay full a little longer.

A bit down

Lately, I have been feeling a bit down. Strangely, it took me a while to realize it. I noticed that I was lethargic and that recently I haven't come up with any of my usual "good ideas" or wanted to work on any of my "fun projects." I thought maybe I was bored, but then I realized I didn't want to do nothing (except rest) because I was bored, but rather because I am just plain exhausted. I haven't had a good nights sleep in a very long time.

So I am renewing my resolve to take better care of me with going to bed early, eating healthy and doing a little exercise too. Hopefully in a few weeks I will be back to my perky self again.

Life 101

I was the oldest kid in my family, so I kind of had to learn the ropes on my own (and with the help of good friends with older siblings). I tried to pass on a little bit about how life (meaning higher education, getting a job, managing a career, etc.) actually works to my little sister William. To be honest, though, she has a native sense about how to jump through hoops and work a system to her advantage that I just don't have.

I see my other younger sisters really struggling to figure out basic life decisions and it troubles me. One of them seemed to be on her way to graduation (though ever so slowly), until she met her now husband, and then quickly abandoned the education ship altogether. Another just moved to Boston just to get the hell out of dodge - which I can appreciate - but she has no real ambitions towards getting her degree either. Thankfully one sister, F, has some good friends who are all in school and keeping her on track a little bit more.

Even so, I am worried about her job prospects. She is currently working as a waitress to put herself through school. I am very proud of her for working so hard and going it on her own, but I really want her to graduate with a chance to get a real job that she will enjoy when she is finished. I am hoping to steer her towards doing either an internship or a study abroad in her field of study so that she will have some relevant experience and possibly a few good references too.

Bright Idea

Throughout the entire house, almost all of the fixtures, hinges, doorknobs, etc. are brass. Annoying, but not worth fixing - except in the bathrooms where the rest of the fixtures - towel racks, tp holders, faucets, etc. - are all silver-toned. I actually liked the light fixture the builders put in for the powder room, so I decided to just paint it silver and reinstall it. Pretty and Frugal!!

Powder Room Update

Recently we had our one-year drywall fix. The powder room, which was previously painted a dark grey, needed a lot of touch-ups. I was nearly out of paint, so I decided since I had to buy some more paint anyway, that I might as well go two-toned.

I really like the effect, it brightened the space, but still kept a little of the drama that the dark color added.